Dealmaker: Hunt Provides $37M in Indiana and California

Hunt Mortgage Group, New York, provided $36.5 million for mixed-use and apartment properties in South Bend, Ind. and Los Angeles.

Steven Cox, Hunt Mortgage Group Managing Director arranged a $31.5 million floating-rate bridge loan for Park at Jefferson Apartments, a garden-style property with 30 two-story residential buildings and five commercial spaces.

“The purpose of the bridge loan is to facilitate the acquisition of Park at Jefferson and to enable funding for the renovation and re-positioning of the property,” Cox said. “The loan facility we put into place includes $26.5 million for the purchase of the property and$5 million for necessary capital expenditures to be completed at the property.”

Cox noted that borrower Laurenze Place LLC plans to spend $6,300 per unit renovating the 734 units and $1.5 million on exterior improvements. “Thirty-six units have been renovated from a 2009 fire and the property is rebounding nicely since the fire,” he said. “The property is currently 94 percent occupied and has been steadily increasing to its current occupancy level.”

Stephen Katz with GCP Capital Group, Great Neck, N.Y., brokered the deal. The Hunt Mortgage Group deal team included Cox, Vice President of Originations Ian Monk and Underwriting Vice President Michael Golfman.

In Los Angeles, Hunt provided a $5 million Freddie Mac small-balance loan to refinance Royal Cedros Apartments, a 60-unit property on a half acre. The borrower was Royal Ceros Investments, a California limited partnership backed by Mehran Namiri-Kalantari. 

Namiri-Kalantari built the property and has operated it since 1987, said Hunt Mortgage Group Vice President Mark Besharaty.

“The property is located in Panorama City, a Los Angeles submarket that has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the area,” Besharaty said. 

The transaction, a 5/1 hybrid fixed-rate term with a 12-month interest-only period, included a 30-year amortization and step-down prepayment schedule.